The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to meter technology, and more particularly, to a management system for the transfer of feature licenses between utility meters.
Some utility companies, for example, certain electrical or gas service companies, employ utility meters to regulate and/or record the amount of service (e.g. electricity) being consumed by a given location or consumer. The design of these utility meters includes numerous hardware/firmware components which increase meter functionality and versatility, providing a variety of features to the consumer and the utility. Access to and use of these components, and the features they provide, is limited and/or controlled on each utility meter by feature licenses, feature keys, soft keys, soft switches etc. These feature licenses generally include firmware which is installed on the utility meter to enable use (i.e. authorized access, appropriate payment for feature access, etc.) of the varied features available on each utility meter. However, maintenance and installation of feature licenses includes the use of a license pool from which licenses are exchanged onto memory devices to be selectively uploaded onto each utility meter. The memory devices, such as smart cards/hardware dongles, serve as intermediaries in the feature license transfer process. A smart card obtains a feature license from the license pool and then is physically brought to a location to transfer the feature license on to the utility meter via software and a smartcard reader. The multiple steps and intermediate devices required in the current feature license transfer process may serve to slow, complicate and increase the cost of a transfer.
Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic view of a known electronic utility meter 102 is shown with hardware components. Electronic utility meter 102 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a known electronic watt-hour meter and may include terminal blades 104, a meter base 106, potential links 108, current transformers 110, a switch 112 to turn on and off service, a metering circuit 114 supported by metering circuit brackets 116, a cover 118 to protect components, and a user button 120 which activates switch 112. The various features which may be available to a consumer/user via hardware components such as metering circuit 114, potential links 108, current transformers 110 etc. may be enabled or disabled by feature licenses.